Hovenweep Campground

We're currently in Hovenweep dry camping near some amazing ruins, incredible views, and a truly "dark sky" park. Our trip to Hovenweep this year was specifically to come and photograph the Perseid Meteor Shower. We've camped here many times before, and it's worth a visit.

There are only 6 RV sites available here. It's first come, first served. Fortunately I've never seen this campground full. It's not for big rigs to be sure, but if you're in something 30 foot max (our perspective at least) you will find an incredible off grid camping experience!

I have been visiting Hovenweep since 2006, and started bringing my Airstream here in 2012!

Hovenweep is off the beaten track to be sure! But at the park services office they have 4 bars of Verizon 4G LTE, and at our site 2. With our booster we're back up to 4, and able to bring you this review post from the campground itself!

Love this small campground! Great sites, each unique and with its own "Fred and Wilma Flintstone" ramada. Small rigs will fit nicely, behemoths will not. Four sites are pull in, 30 feet max. Others are parking roadside, more suited for tent campers.

Great 2 bar Verizon LTE in this very remote location.

Flush toilets in the restrooms. Very clean. Perfect starting point for the Holly Ruin trail, right out of the campground. 8 miles out-and-back but easy from an elevation standpoint.

What a gem of a park, and what a fantastic campground!

Clean, campsites nicely spaced (each with a shaded picnic table, many with FLAT tent pads), a few spaces just for RVs (but as another reviewer said, only small RVs, not big ones, will fit at this campground) modern flush toilets... trails from each campsite to the toilets so no walk-throughs! How thoughtful is that!

LOVED this campground, highly recommended!

Neat little campground tucked into the trees hear the Puebloan ruins. Paved road. As other reviewers stated, very clean bathrooms, sites with pads for tents and shaded picnic tables. First-come-first-served. Small road, so no big RV's. Trailheads directly from campground to explore the ruins. Unfortunately, it was raining and blowing quite hard when we arrived, so we did not put the tent up. The rain turned to sleet and then snow. Very unexpected for the middle of May. We slept in our van. Then next morning, the weather cleared enough to make coffee and breakfast before starting to snow. Beautiful white flakes fell for over an hour. It was a winter wonderland.

After reading other reviews, we were very excited to stay at Hovenweep, and it did not disappoint.
The sites, bathrooms, and park are very clean and well-maintained.
The drive in was a bit rough, but the park was worth it. After our dinner, we sat out in our camp chairs and stargazed for over an hour. We slept with all our camper windows open in August and woke to the sounds of coyotes yelping in the canyon below.
We hiked the ruins trail to the visitors center where 3 of our 5 children earned their junior ranger badges. It was a well-marked trail and an easy hike with a two year old on my back.
We would love to return and spend more time hiking and exploring the outlying portions of the park.
Although Hovenweep is an out of the way park, we really believe it's a must-see for everyone.

The campground was very nice, staff and guest were all very respectful. Pets are allowed but must be leashed and cleaned up after. All sites are dry camping, there is water with a 5 gallon limit at the visitor center before you get the campground. Bathrooms were clean with flushing toilets. Trails were well marked and documented both on the trail and with maps or information from the visitor center. The only downside was no mobile phone service anywhere in the 4 corners area that I could find for T-Mobile. There was 911 service on my T-Mobile phone through another carrier but no data, txt or basic phone services.

This was part of our grand before Christmas 2017 adventure! I am a planner and had our dates and places to see down to the minute. All my planning went out the window when we rolled into the Hovenweep Campground! We immediately made a decision to stay an extra night and what a good decision it was! The campground is small, beautiful, clean and during the week before Christmas completely empty! Plan on coming fully filled with fresh water and empty gray/black tanks and plan to stay a while. The scenery is incredible and the hikes are wonderful! Our favorite was the Holly Group, but each hike was fantastic! The weather was a bit cool at night......ok, it was frigid, but it was in the 40's and sunny during the day - perfect temperature to hike and explore. Funny enough Sprint actually worked - complete shocker as we were prepared with our Verizon wifi! We will definitely be back!!

We stayed in this campground in February and had the place mostly to ourselves. We didn't have reservations, so we stopped at the ranger station on the way in. The rangers were helpful and provided information about the camping and the local hikes.

We stayed in an RV only site which was nice and flat. There is no electric or water in the sites. The bathrooms have water, but no showers. Each site has a shelter over the camp table and a fire ring.

The Ruins Hike which can be started near the entrance of the campground is a very worthwhile hike with well preserved ruins. We saw a long eared owl on our hike, which added some excitement for the hike. Even though they are common for the area, they are huge and very cool to see.

The silence in this campground, even though full on a Saturday night, is absolutely impressive. A private camper with a telescope the size of a whiskey barrel tells everyone that while he’s not an official park representative, he’d be happy to let any and everyone look at the stars with him tonight. A meteor shower fails to show up until 3am so the blanket of stars will have to suffice.

While it doesn’t reach frigid temperatures here in late April, I imagine Winter tenters huddling in the heated bathroom. A four mile trail to the Holly Ruins begins immediately behind our campsite and within a few minutes we’re descending rocks that lead through this crack in the boulders that feels like a scene from Labyrinth, intriguingly scary and something I’m glad to step out of as quickly as possible. Buzzing moths and brave fuzzy bees make for a nice morning concert and the Junior ranger program challenges even our experienced young travelers. The ranger at the visitor center is one of those patient caring types who takes all the time in the day to chat through our boys’ books and her voice oozes with a love for this park that’s every bit as refreshing as the lingering ice water in our Hydros.

A few RVs have managed to snag the four or five spots that accommodate them while the remaining many small campsites are filled with Four Wheel Campers, mini van road trippers and bicycling tenters gone well out of their long distance way. We watch as another perfect National Monument experience goes further away than it appears in our rear view...

I had site 31 which was level and with a shade structure. Few sites able to accommodate big rigs but fine for shorter ones. Can get super hot during the day. 90's when there in mid-sept. 40 degree drop at night so great sleeping weather. sites are spread out and some have killer views. The trail to view ruins is fairly easy 2.5 miles. there is water limit of 5 gallons. Didn't use toilet so can't vouch but, rest of cg very clean. Fires ok in rings with grate. Surprisingly good Verizon cell service.